Unicorn Day: The Unicorns of Blossom Wood #UnicornDay

12/01/2017

Sometimes an email pops into your inbox and you know that something is just going to be a perfect fit for your family and that’s exactly what happened when I was asked to take part in Unicorn Day today. Unicorn Day is celebrating the release of the last two books in the Unicorns of Blossom Wood series by children’s author Catherine Coe. Catherine has previously written the successful Owls of Blossom Wood series which was really well received by children aged 5 – 8 and this series is aimed at the same age group.

Just over a year ago Little Miss C had what they formally call a “development step”. A development step that as far as I am concerned changed her life. For the better. LMC became what the education system calls “an independent reader”. Basically she started being able to read for pleasure, and that is exactly what she has done since that day. Big time!

It’s not unusual for LMC to be put to bed and then for us to go up a couple of hours later to check on her and find her lying in bed reading. You can go into her bedroom in a morning and find half a bookcase worth of books in her bed or on the floor next to her. She devours books, especially ones with characters that she can relate to, and I figured that she would probably enjoy the Unicorns of Blossom Wood series. I wasn’t wrong.

The books arrived just before Christmas and as soon as I’d opened the package from the postman LMC curled up on the sofa with the first book in the series. At about 10pm that evening she proudly announced that she’d finished the first book and was about to move on to the second. Before lunch the next day she’d finished that too.

Bear in mind that all this was over Christmas, with her Granny staying and generally lots going on in the house after school had finished. Yet she managed to read all four of the Unicorns of Blossom Wood books in just over three days! In my mind that’s a sure sign of good books. When I asked her to write about the books she also decided to write a letter to one of the characters. Lei. That shows a lovely level of connection with the girls she has been reading about. To LMC they are like friends.

In the books, three cousins, Cora, Isabelle and Lei, discover magical hoof prints on the ground and are whisked away to the magical land of Blossom Wood, where they are no longer girls, but instead unicorns. Each of the books in the series sees the girls go back to Blossom Wood where they are reunited various animal friends that they met in their first adventure there.

Whenever I’ve talked to LMC about the books the main thing that she keeps coming back to is how much she likes the three girls, and the unicorns that they become. I’m not sure if talking about a book’s characters is something that they’ve done recently at school or not, but she’s definitely been talking about them more than the storylines and really relating to the girls and their different personalities. It was therefore fascinating to see that the guest post that author Catherine Coe has written for Being Mrs C as part of the Unicorn Day celebrations is about those strong girl characters and how she developed them.

They say that it’s important for girls to have strong female characters in the books that they read, and that’s exactly what Catherine has done here. Little Miss C’s just sad that there are no further books in the series for her to read next!